This year's summer is almost over but it's still warm and sunny. It's got to be a hot and lazy Sunday, the last one in August. So, searching for a song being in the adequate mood for today I found one of the most sophisticated ballads recorded in year 2000 by a Norvegian pop giants A-ha titled "Summer Moved On" (WEA - 3984 29692-2). By the way, the brand new studio album from A-ha, their tenth one, titled "Cast In Steel" is scheduled to be released on 4th September 2015.
I have just discovered the
song that I can listen many times in a one day and I haven’t enough of it at
all. The title of the song : „She Told Me Lies”, the author : a Belgian band
Twilight Ritual. This song was recorded about thirty years ago but it laid in
hiding until year 2002 when it was released on band’s compilation album „The
Factory Scream” (Micrart MCD 8504). How can I describe this song? Simply, synthpop
in the purest of all possible shapes.
Canadian synth-pop came to some signifence over last few years. A true representative of this music genre is Gold Zebra, a man female duo from Montreal, popular mainly on a local music scene, but I think it deserves to achieve much more success in the future. As for today, the band's masterpiece is the self-titled album "Gold Zebra" which was recorded between years 2010 - 2013 and finally released on 22 April'2014 by Montreal-based music label Visage Musique ( catalogue number : VM13 ), now it's available to download under this link : http://goldzebra.bandcamp.com/releases. The album consists ten tracks worth to listen in whole, my favourite one is titled "Apart Again" with video filmed for it in the desert.
Forgotten hits. It's not easy to find a clear definition for this music category. For me, this could be an adequate term for songs which reached at one point the higher regions of the various, local or worldwide hit charts and were recognizable by listeners all over the world. The fine example of "the forgotten hit" may be "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, a Canadian new wave band from Montreal. This song was originally released by indie label Statik Records ( STAT 24 ) in UK and Canada in 1982, entered The Canadian Top 50 Singles Chart in February'1983 and gradually gaining places it peaked at number 11 in July that year. But that was only the preludium of the worlwide success for this record which came in the second half of 1983. It became a bigger hit than it had been in Canada, both in US and UK, peaking at number 3 on US Billboard Hot 100 and nunber 6 on UK Singles Chart. "The Safety Dance" has also achieved success on the official hit charts in many other countries or continents, as in Australia (no. 5), New Zealand (no. 2), Germany (no. 2), Ireland (no. 3), Norway (no. 3), South Africa (no.1), Belgium (no. 10), Austria (no. 7), Sweden (no, 3), Switzerland (no. 4). Nowadays, with a liitle luck you can still listen and watch live this song during one of rare gigs by reformed Men Without Hats (with only one member from band's original line-up, Ivan Doroschuk - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, by the way the author of this song).
I think that everybody has got his own list of music tracks which have written permanently in his memory throughout his life. So when you hear one of such songs on the radio or the music television, just after two or three seconds you can easily name the title of this song, the artist who perform it, the exact date or at least the year it was released, if or when it was a hit and what place it achieved on various charts, My personal setlist of the most favourite tracks consists mainly of songs from the 80s and the late 70's, so my memories have been revived today as I listened to the song titled "The Last Film" by the English new wave band Kissing The Pink. Originally it was released by indie label Magnet Records (KTP 3) in 1983 and gained some minor success, reaching number 19 on UK Single Chart. I remember the band's performence in Top Of The Pops in Fabruary;1983, it gave me a thrill, I think it was very cool then and it's cool nowadays.
Wire is the band I admired a lot especially in the late 80's and early 90's, Started in 1976 as the raucous punk rock group with their first eponymic record "Pink Flag" (Harvet, SHSP 4076), but soon they developed their own music style, full of multilayered structures built on sophisticated sounds with greater use of guitar effects and synthesizers.Their masterpieces were albuns "The Ideal Copy" (from 1987, Mute STUMM 42), "A Bell Is A Cup ... Until It Is Struck" (from 1988, Mute STUMM 54) and "It's Beginning To And Back Again" (from 1989, Mute STUMM 66). The personell responsible for these records were : Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar) and Robert Gotobed alias Grey (drums). But the assumpt for this post is the brand new album by Wire which was released in April 2015. It's titled just simply "Wire" (Pinkflag - PF22). There was one change in band's line-up, Bruce Gilbert was replaced by Matthew Simms, a very talented young guitarist from London. In my opinion, this album's highest point is its last track named "Harpooned", an almost nine minutes long, vastly athmospheric, hypnotic, drowned in a shrill melancholy.
Sometimes it’s better to have got the second skin.
That’s wish which is coming from the song by The Chameleons. A true wish.
"One cold damp evening
The world stood still
I watched as I held my breath
A silhouette I thought I knew
Came through
And someone spoke to me
Whispered in my ear
This fantasy's for you
Fantasies are "in" this year
My whole life passed before my eyes
I thought what they say is true
I shed my skin and my disguise
And cold, numb and naked
I emerged from my cocoon
And a half remembered tune
Played softly in my head
Then he turned smiling
And said
I realise a miracle is due
I dedicate this melody to you
But is this the stuff dreams are made of?
If this is the stuff dreams are made of
No wonder I feel like I'm floating on air
Everywhere
It feels like I'm everywhere
It's like you fail to make the connection
You know how vital it is
Or when something slips through your fingers
You know how precious it is
Well you reach the point where you know
It's only your second skin
